Autism is a gift

[MNAus]

I view this as a slightly provocative question, so I'm going to be straightforward with the answer. None of this is personal or intended to invalidate anyone.

Is autism a gift? No. No more than life is generally anyway. For many it is a very definite disability.

Is it the next stage of evolution (from an onwards and upwards idea)? Definitely not. I find this sort of idea quite troubling. Nothing good comes from ideas that a particular group of humans are more genetically advanced.

I would also suggest people take care with confirmation bias. It's quite easy to fall prey to this, especially when the traits are appealing.

 

[Outdated]

When I was growing up none of us knew anything about autism, I knew I was weird but that was it. But I also knew I was better. Smarter, faster, stronger, more resilient. I was born blessed.

That doesn't happen for all of us, and I'm not without some serious issues either. Exactly as @Nitro said, it's a two edged sword. I think simply believing that I was better when I was a kid instead of seeing myself as some sort of cripple gave me enough self confidence to be able to make the best out of what I was born with.

As for evolutionary theories, there's two mainstream ideas. I really do like the sound of them, very appealing, but I don't subscribe to them.

One is that autism is an expression of the human genome trying to move to the next step in evolution and many of us are just the buggy beta test versions.

The other is that we are actually throwbacks from neanderthals.

 

[GrownupGirl]

Sometimes it can be a gift, but because of the world we live in most of the time it's a curse. Most autistic people can't get jobs and the rate of suicide is much higher than that of NTs. Many of us suffer from anxiety disorders and depression. Most of us are bullied even as adults. Many NTs think we're all mentally small children who can't speak or think for ourselves. Also many of us unintentionally look "uncanny valley", which creeps NTs out.

In this world, humans are valued only for having a romantic partner, the children they have, and the especially job they have. We're not valued for being able to perfectly imagine a slice of pizza in our mind or whatever.

 

[Hypnalis]

One is that autism is an expression of the human genome trying to move to the next step in evolution and many of us are just the buggy beta test versions.
The other is that we are actually throwbacks from neanderthals.

IMO Atavism is much more likely than "the next big thing", but neither are convincing.

Evolution is a random process, with selection being the mechanism that effects long term changes.
So looking back you get a "before" state and an "after" state. But what do you see along the way? Not buggy versions.
If we could monitor human evolution, we'd expect to see functional intermediate states (like dinosaur feathers (insulation) as an enabler for avian flight). Braincase size in hominins is like that.

If you look at evolution as a whole (all species), all kinds of odd things survive the selection process because they don't cause any harm.

Human brains are very new in evolutionary terms. You'd expect to many traits from pre-human species being carried along through time (from way before Neanderthals). Some changing towards modern humans, like brain case and walking erect. Others based on past forms that have changed over time, but are not directly visible in the fossil record (language, abstract thought / planning).

And you'd expect a lot of variation in the newer parts of the human brain (e.g. language & consciousness). Some not harmful enough for "negative selection", nor useful enough to increase the number of grandchildren the "carrier" has (a way to think of the short-term view of selection is "maximize the number of grandchildren")

@Outdated
I'll leave the next step of this perspective open: I'll reply here if you do, but otherwise I'll let it go.
Maybe something for our "hanging, but not forgotten" conversation?

 

[Outdated]

Evolution is a random process, with selection being the mechanism that effects long term changes.

It's a concept that a lot of people either struggle to understand or never had it explained to them in a way they could easily understand.

Polymorphism - random mutations.

It's every pregnant woman's greatest fear - will my baby be normal?

The truth is that every single baby born has mutations. If we didn't we'd all look identical to our siblings, but instead there's always small mutations, different hair colour or type, different eye colour, different facial shape, etc. Some mutations are more obvious than others. Some will be beneficial and some will be detrimental.

These mutations are created by corruption of genetic information during transfer. In modern concepts you could call it a download error, a tiny bit of information is either not present or altered in some way.

Polymorphism in Evolution:

To make a simple example, a random mutation. A cat is born with slightly longer legs than it's siblings. With longer legs the cat is able to run faster, but in a physical fight it has less strength and power.

So if the cat is born on wide open plains where there is small game having longer legs would be of benefit to the cat. It would be more successful at hunting and surviving and therefore more likely to pass along the genes with the longer legs.

If the cat was born in rocky and mountainous terrain or in dense forest there would be no benefit from having longer legs. If local game was larger or stronger than in other areas the cat would be at a disadvantage with longer limbs and less likely to survive than it's siblings. It might not get a chance to pass on the genes with the longer legs.

 

[tazz]

It's a concept that a lot of people either struggle to understand or never had it explained to them in a way they could easily understand.

Yeah a lot of casual (not scientific) writing about evolution seems to present it exactly the wrong way around and/or conflate "evolution" and "natural selection". Also change happens on such a loooooong timescale that humans can't wrap their heads around it easily. The attributes of a species that provide an advantage over such a long time frame are not easy to discern.

I'm reminded of the newspaper articles you see from time to time like: "Will humans develop a longer, thinner index finger because we use touch screens so much." Maybe, but only if doing so also provides a significantly better chance of finding a mate.

"Even if nature is less likely to murder us, we still need to find partners and raise children, so sexual selection now plays a bigger role in our evolution."

Source: Future evolution: from looks to brains and personality, how will humans change in the next 10,000 years?

 

[Misty Avich]

There is something I want to put in about human evolution but I better not.

 

[Misty Avich]

As a child I didn't have repetitive behaviours like lining things up. I just played with toys. The only toys I used to line up was my brother's toy cars, but I was making a car parking lot. Then I'd get bored and leave the cars parked on my brother's bedroom floor and went off to play with something else, much to my brother's annoyance lol.

I had 3 big encyclopaedias in my bedroom but I never read them. They were just useful as a foot stool so I could reach things on the higher shelves.

I wasn't really into reading as a child even though I had a lot of books. I preferred my mum to read to me at bedtime, often books that were aimed at younger children (like when I was 6 I sometimes wanted my mum to read me stories aimed for 3-year-olds, but I think that's quite common in children). I also loved getting my grandmother to read to me when she visited, and we'd go through the book together where I pointed at the pictures. I didn't learn to read myself until I was 7 and I was put in the slow-readers group at school.

I hated writing, when I was little. I wrote so slow then I kept losing focus and would just sit and daydream, holding my pen on the paper. Then I'd suddenly find myself getting a bollocking over my shoulder by the teacher. Then I'd cry and carry on with the writing whilst crying, so tears dropped all over the page. I was very sensitive to being told off by authority figures, and I still am now.

 

[vergil96]

Hi I am just wondering if any of you see your Autism as a gift to human evolution, firstly I wanted to state I am NIFJ personality with Autism, I love alone time in fact I find busy social situations very draining and learned to protect my own energy, I gave up watching the news and the illusions in the world, and focused on myself through a spiritual awakening. I surprisingly loved the meditating and it’s a big part of my life now, my visions are so vivid and beautiful I have never felt so grounded and connected with myself.

I wanted to ask if any of you have hyperphantasia this is the ability to see images crisp and clear with the mind, even with your eyes open, if I say can you picture what you had for breakfast, can you see it exactly how it was? If I say think about chocolate, can you smell it now? Think of a pizza can you visualise it, taste it and smell it? Can you see things other don’t like a tiny pull in fabric, a small stain etc. the opposite to this is aphantasia, only around 10% of the population have this gift and linked to Autism. This is being discussed in the Awake project.

I also wanted to ask if anyone has a good inner monologue voice, i call this our intuition not all people have it, but it helps guide us and process. I use to just think I was different, learning I had Autism when young was hard, and I was told to believe I am just wired different, I felt broken, but I can honestly say what I have learned now, I am grateful for this gift, I don’t have to blend in anymore, the way I look at it is that typical people don’t understand our abilities because they don’t have the hyper senses we do, and learning to use these gifts can very much be rewarding into adulthood, so long as we surpress the ego mind.

I hate the fact I was forced into situations when I was young, like I had to get use to what everyone else was doing, I hated birthday parties, and school was draining, I thrived with alone time, I struggled with negativity from peoples problems and news in the world affected me, how can one understand the world with so much drama, I was like an empath absorbing the bad energy, to a point I would have a melt down. Now I make my own choices and decide what I invest my time into, I choose the people I mix with, I am able to say no! Having my own child now with Autism I fully understand what she is going through, I don’t pressure her into anything, and let her explore her qualities, and help guide her, if she doesn’t want to do something I say ok. I only wish my parents had been more understanding, I’m sure they thought they were helping, my mum always said “it’s what the professions told us to do” when in fact it was more damaging. This is just my opinion, people have to accept that there are some who just like the simple things in life and are just quiet, and like alone time, instead of assuming it’s not normal! We can thrive at our best being allowed to be ourselves and respected.

If a child likes to line up toys instead of playing with them, that’s ok why not join in and make patterns with them, there are so many other ways to learn incorporating them into making shapes, numbers etc I use to go in my own world doing this and if anyone cared to ask what I was doing, I would tell have told them I was learning about symmetry, though I didn’t know what symmetry was then, but I was figuring it out. Now I am an artist making beautiful mandalas, I found myself through my own awakening and my inner child has come back to the surface, I have never been more happier, and can deal with any situation grounding myself and just be in the present focusing on the now, past is not important.

I don't have major difficulties in life, just normal ones, so I feel in a similar way. I think I would have been much worse off without the skills profile that I have.

 

[Ken]

Every time I look at this thread, I can’t get past my notion that if there is a gift, then there must be a giver of the gift. For those of you who do think autism is a gift, from whom did you receive it?

OK, I guess there is a semantics or definition issue here. I am using the word "gift" as something unexpected that I interpret as good. Either receiving an item or experiencing something that is good but totally unexpected. surely everyone has experienced something good in their lifetime. Even if its for a brief moment. It's just a law of averages thing.

So, what would be the correct word for that??

I would also like to clarify that the "gifts' or "benefit" of being autistic, that I speak of, is like weather as compared to climate. the benefits from my autism is far from the whole (climate). It is little parts of my life (weather). But since those parts are good, I treasure them. Especially since the whole of my autism is not good. The world is full of rocks, but we treasure the diamonds, which are rare. As far as life goes, if I focus on the whole bad, then life is all bad. If I, at least, recognize and accept the good parts, then life is so much better.

One might say that is false hope or foolish. I would not agree. The parts of my life that I am proud of and enjoy is absolutely real, regardless if anyone else agrees or not. The bad stuff? I try to avoid. For example: I avoid walking through a sticker or thorn patch barefooted.

I don't really know anyone that is interested in my special interests. I used to be very puzzled about that. Eventually, I have learned to accept that. It makes me feel very lonely, but that is not the end of the world. My special interest is my friend that makes me happy and I consider being happy to be a "gift" - or whatever the proper term is.

 

[CountryGirl]

Its a gift to me even tho im moderate and not very bright im still capable of doing what i love best
I have never hated myself for being autistic

 

[Alice09]

There are many mixed views about this, which is totally understanding, as stated in my post this was my own personal opinion of myself, its great to see some of you also see it as a gift. I know the spectrum is wide, and there are people suffering, I can only bring and focus on the positives here in my own opinion, a discussion how things could be! Discovering I was NIFJ gave me a better understanding of myself, even having Autism I needed to fit into a personality, and having an understanding why I crave alone time, and why I thrive using disassociation, it helped me understand my relationships more, especially after recently separating from my partner. It also helped me understand my curious mystical mind, sure I found with other Autistic individuals we shared similar traits, but learning I was NIFJ learned me so much more about myself.

I think my success was through my spiritual awakening, before then I was depressed, after suffering trauma in my childhood, it was only through my journey I noticed my hyper senses were opening up more, when I read a blog about hyperphantasia, and noticed a link to Autism, I was very interested in this so wanted to ask here, I honestly thought everyone can do this! It made me think is there more strengths we assume everyone has.

I would love some views on spirituality, I can honestly say it worked for me, and it was a long journey through the chakras, but it was really worth it, connecting with nature, suppressing the ego and being in more control of my actions, my intuition is guiding me beautifully. It made me think about religion now, I believe in god and love him dearly, but religion was never for me, I found it to complex. What if the Autistic mind and way of viewing the world, represents not a defect that we must correct, but an evolutionary step up! A leap in consciousness with spiritual awareness, it's just a thought that made me think.

ASD is also associated with several intellectual or emotional gifts, but what if we are not evolving these, instead we are learning to suppress them and blend in. There was a blindfold test carried out by scientist, where the autistic children were blindfolded but could sense the colours of objects through tactile touch, there was a big hype about this online, it makes we wonder if we were taught from a young age to use these gifts, what would this look like in the future? there were also tests carried out on auditory processing, and some autistic children could literally switch of from sound while focusing on a task, and claim to not hearing anything. There was another based on how Autistic children use smells as social cues, if anyone wants to read about these tests on google, always select the university or gov studies for accurate information.

Whether or not autism is a part of complex evolutionary processors, we have to acknowledge people with autism do have exceptional sensory capabilities, but also need help and support to cope. Could there be future special schools to help them enhance their gifts bringing them a better future? and I am not talking about something like the Xmen lol. but a class for them to work on their hyper senses, and being in control of them, instead of ignoring these strengths, allowing the children to think of their senses as a superpower, children love these kinds of games, guessing the sounds, blindfolds, etc, it saddens me to hear many stories of children suffering in school, my own daughter with Autism has had times either through bullying or negative comments, she literally makes herself sick with worry, and has to stay home for a day, its really tough on them masking to blend in, and I think the damage is them not being able to be themselves, or knowing who they are, I have been learning her the spiritual ways of grounding herself and meditating, how to block negative energy, and cleanse her own, she is dealing with school life much easier, now when she comes home she goes straight to her room to cleanse herself of any negative energy she has picked up from school, and comes down bright and smiling sharing her light and love, I would love to see schools incorporating this in the future, for their wellness/wellbeing.

 

[Judge]

A "gift"....a "curse"....whatever. For me it's all about context. The surrounding circumstances and most importantly the particular people I am interacting with at any one time. Otherwise I see my autism as something confined largely to interactions with other humans. And that I essentially shut out most considerations when I shut my door and am alone.

Conversely I see my OCD as far more problematic in comparison, as it follows me around wherever I am, regardless of being with people (friend or foe) or by myself and on a 24/7 basis.

 

[Forest Cat]

there were also tests carried out on auditory processing, and some autistic children could literally switch of from sound while focusing on a task, and claim to not hearing anything.

That's interesting, when I was very young I realized that I sometimes couldn't hear anything. I was occupied with something, doing something and I was very focused on whatever I was doing and then suddenly I realized that there was no sound. For example, the tv was on right beside me and people in the room were talking but I didn't hear anything. But the moment I became aware of it, the sound came back.

It also happened often when I was laying in the backseat of my parents car when we were out driving. I was just laying there thinking about things and suddenly there was no sound at all. No rumbling or car noises. This still happens to me now, it's a little strange, strange experience to have the sound turned completly off.

 

[Alice09]

I also do this when I’m painting, it’s like I just switch off from the external sound, and it’s me and the canvas, sometimes my ex partner use to have to tap me on the shoulder and say “I was talking to you” and I kind of switch back my hearing is perfect I not long had them checked at ENT due to tinnitus in one of my ears.

There is so much I have took for granted, like my sensing, until I noticed I was doing it, iv been doing some self tests on myself to see how it improves.

Iv also just seen on the news the mother of rhianna a who was murdered has rolled out her Peace in mind campaign for spiritual wellness in schools, I think this is amazing and I am completely backing this.

 

[Judge]

That's interesting, when I was very young I realized that I sometimes couldn't hear anything. I was occupied with something, doing something and I was very focused on whatever I was doing and then suddenly I realized that there was no sound. For example, the tv was on right beside me and people in the room were talking but I didn't hear anything. But the moment I became aware of it, the sound came back.

It also happened often when I was laying in the backseat of my parents car when we were out driving. I was just laying there thinking about things and suddenly there was no sound at all. No rumbling or car noises. This still happens to me now, it's a little strange, strange experience to have the sound turned completly off.

For me it's just an aspect of "tunnel vision". Where my focus on something is so intense that everything outside of it is just "drowned out" in comparison. It's weird, though in my own case it can happen and I don't even give it a thought. Not surprising, as all my focus is so finely honed elsewhere.

 

[Alice09]

For me it's just an aspect of "tunnel vision". Where my focus on something is so intense that everything outside of it is just "drowned out" in comparison. It's weird, though in my own case it can happen and I don't even give it a thought. Not surprising, as all my focus is so finely honed elsewhere.

what a great way to explain it Judge, I can relate to this with reference to the ability to zoom in on certain interests, could this be related to the fine tuning of examination and fixation with the autistic mind? fine pattern vision, I practiced a self study with this, using the candle gazing meditation method otherwise known as Trataka, which I have added below, with practice it broadened my vision in reality, I would recommend anyone to try this as an experiment to expand their visual cortex.

How to do candle gazing meditation

1. Find your optimal time of day.
2. Find a dark, quiet space with no interruptions, closing any curtains
3. Sit straight, with the candle at eye-level. ...
4. Take a few deep breaths and settle in to your intention.
5. Set a timer for 1 minute to start.
6. Follow the movements of the candle flame with your eyes.
7. increase the time throughout the practice
8. Allow yourself to close your eyes and still see the flame, dont worry if it fades, it takes practice

Trataka is said to help prevent, treat and even cure various eye diseases. It increases concentration and focus and is said to enhance intuition. Its practice disconnects us from the external world and the mind away from the body. It pushes sensory perception away, disassociating our thinking from our body and releasing our mind to a calm, clear space. With practice it enhances our ability to be mentally and physically productive and focused, but also to switch off and be still when needed.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

My gift is no different than being gifted athletically or being gifted academically.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Any professional athlete is gifted as is anyone with an advanced education, Their gift is no worse than any I was given. I'm no athlete. I take what nature gave me unusual visually thinking abilities. my bout with transverse myelitis 50 years ago did not help me becoming very athletic. for some reason I could shoot very accurately never took it very seriously. My autism has never been a hindrance, I could not work around.